Alongside James Eyre Walker, Nick Smethurst founded Season Three, a pillar of culture and community within Meanjin which has blossomed from a struggling music shop into one of the city’s most important refuges of expression.

The sound I fell in love with as a delinquent intern remains ingrained in their current music, just more refined and reflective of the band’s half-decade of growth.

I sat down with EJ Wood and found an artist who thinks less in individual tracks and more in world building, where instrumentals act as architects and pairing songs becomes a way of expanding emotional space.

Roguish, romantic and rough, their music has ego, but not entitlement, balancing big-dick bravado with vulnerability, and mischief with meaning. It’s red lipstick styled with a rifle.